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Peering at the Vicinity of Supermassive Black Holes with AXIS

Presentation #100.92 in the session AGN.

Published onJul 01, 2023
Peering at the Vicinity of Supermassive Black Holes with AXIS

The X-ray Probe-class mission concept AXIS (Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite) will transform our understanding of the growth and fueling of supermassive black holes (SMBHs). With higher average imaging resolution, over a larger field of view, at much higher sensitivity as compared to Chandra, AXIS will help address some of the most important problems in supermassive black hole astrophysics. In particular, we review a handful of SMBH studies to be carried out with AXIS such as: peering at the vicinity of supermassive black holes to constrain the sizes of X-ray emitting regions of quasars and revealing the emergence of the accretion flow in the strong gravity region around black holes. In particular, AXIS observations of microlensed quasars will constrain the spin parameter of SMBHs and the evolution over cosmic time, as well as test general relativity in the strong-gravity regime. The microlensed spectra of the individual images will also be used to constrain the ionization of the accretion disk as a function of radius. The synergy of AXIS with the Rubin Observatory and eROSITA will be important in making these discoveries possible. These future X-ray measurements will only be capable with AXIS, which will provide unsurpassed capability for exploring the evolution and physics of SMBHs.

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